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==B Mark Fiore==, a former Portola Valley resident and graduate of Woodside Priory, won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning.

Mark Fiore, a former Portola Valley resident, a Woodside Priory graduate and a political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle's online site SFGate.com, was named the winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning.

As noted in the prize citation, Mr. Fiore's "biting wit, extensive research and ability to distill complex issues set a high standard for an emerging form of commentary."

Mr. Fiore's $10,000 prize sets a precedent in that it is the first cartooning prize to be awarded for work that appears exclusively online, according to a Chronicle story. His cartoons include animations.

His work also appears on the Web sites of Slate, CBS News, Mother Jones magazine and National Public Radio, with political animations on sites including CNN, Frontline and Bill Moyers Journal, according to an online biography. The Wall Street journal called Mr. Fiore "the undisputed guru" of animated political cartoons.

In a Priory statement, science teacher Paul Trudelle recalls that Mr. Fiore, of the class of 1987, had a habit of producing drawings that "were always pointed and humorous." Some were confiscated, Mr. Trudelle added.

Mr. Fiore's career includes a major in political science at Colorado College, where he received his diploma under the approving gaze of commencement speaker Dick Cheney, his bio said. A youth spent in California and the Idaho backwoods "shaped him politically," he said.

He is also the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, two Online Journalism Awards, and awards from the National Cartoonists Society and the Society of Professional Journalists.